Galaxy S7 MMS takes a very long time to send, cannot receive group messages, other issues

Welcome to out first #GalaxyS7 post for this week. We are bringing you more S7 issues that we’ve collected recently. As usual, these issues are submitted by some members of our Android community so if you also encounter an issue on your S7, don’t hesitate to let us know about them.

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page, or you can install our free app from Google Play Store.

When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem #1: Galaxy S7 MMS takes a very long time to send | Galaxy S7 SMS not working properly

Hello I am hoping that that you could help me please. I have tried and researched my issue so much and still can’t resolve my problem, hence I’m praying that somehow out of the massive questions you receive perhaps I will be assisted.

I recently started having issues with my text messaging. I will have a very lengthy message appear stating “network is not available, something about Wi-Fi and integrated messaging…” and is gone so fast it has taken much time to even capture those words of the message. now when trying to send a photo for example it will take sometimes an hour to send. I never use to have this issue and honestly not being tech savvy and trying to figure out this issue am worried about changes I keep making/trying. So again after more search I came across this site and went through different troubleshooting areas and information you provide which thank you for all your effort and information you do provide it is very kind especially with this send a question form. After not finding what I so desperately need assistance with I thought the worst thing that could happen would be not to get a response, hence nothing to lose and a chance for very aggravating situation be resolved. Thank you kindly again for all the assistance and information you provide. Sincerely. — Deborah

Solution: Hi Deborah. It would have been useful to us if you captured the entire error message but since it shows and disappears so fast, that’s fine. Because there’s not much information you gave here to help us pinpoint the problem, we suggest that you do the basic software troubleshooting we usually provide. Below are the specific steps that you can do in this one.

Wipe the cache and data of your messaging app

Because the issue appears to be centered on text messaging feature, your first move should be to ensure that the SMS app is working fine. There are two things that you can do at this time, first is to wipe the cache and observe, and second is to delete app data. All these options are within the same process so kindly do them in that order. Below are the steps on how to do them:

Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.

Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6.0.

Once in there, click on an application.

You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.

You should now clearly see the Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons for the application.

Tapping the clear data button will wipe all your SMS and MMS so if you want to keep them, make sure to back them up before doing so. If you have no idea how to back your SMS, we suggest that you use Samsung Smart Switch app. This method of creating a backup requires a second device, usually a computer. If you have one, simply install Smart Switch on it. If you haven’t heard of Smart Switch app before, kindly visit this official Samsung page.

To enable Smart Switch on your Galaxy S7, follow these steps:

Tap Settings.

Tap Backup and reset or [Cloud and accounts].

Tap Open Smart Switch to open Smart Switch Mobile.

Delete the cache partition

If the problem won’t go away after wiping the cache and data, the next best thing to do is refresh the system cache. Sometimes, the system cache gets corrupted so you want to ensure that it’s not back to its good form all the time. Here’s how to do that:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.

Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.

When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.

When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.

Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’

Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.

Now highlight the option ‘Yes’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.

Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.

The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

Observe the phone in safe mode

To check if a third party app is behind your trouble, you can restart your S7 to safe mode. If this mode is enabled, all third party apps, or apps you usually install after unboxing your phone, won’t be allowed to run. So, if text messaging works fine while safe mode is on, that’s proof that one of your third party apps is to blame. To boot your phone to safe mode, follow these steps:

Turn your Galaxy S7 off.

Press and hold the Power button.

Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.

Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.

Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.

NOTE: Keep in mind that booting to safe mode won’t pinpoint the problematic app. If you think that an app is responsible for this trouble, you must uninstall apps individually so you can observe how the phone works. You must do this for all third apps until you can pinpoint the culprit.

Wipe the phone via factory reset

Factory reset, as it name suggests, will wipe everything from the phone’s main storage device so again, make sure that you create a backup of your files using Smart Switch app. To factory reset your Galaxy S7, follow these steps:

From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.

Find and tap Settings and then touch Backup and reset.

Tap Factory data reset and touch Reset device.

If you have screen lock feature turned on, enter your password or PIN.

Touch Continue.

Tap Delete all to confirm your action.

Contact your wireless carrier

Finally, if nothing works on your end, you must let your carrier know about it. The issue may be due to a known glitch that only their technical support can fix.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 edge not receiving messages as a group

I have the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. When I send out a group text message it goes out from my phone as a group. However to everyone I send it to it comes to them as a single text. and comes back to me as single text. I have had 5 very Savvy Samsung users trying to fix this and have not been able to get it accomplished. I would be forever grateful because I hate this phone at this point and it’s very expensive. It is an AT&T phone. However I now have it connected to Cricket but that should not matter. I don’t know what Android version I have. And I don’t know how to figure that out I’m not tech savvy. So I just chose one of them but please let me know if you can help me with this problem. How I can find out what version I have. So you can then tell me what I need to do. — Gina

Solution: Hi Gina. First of all, there are a few requirements in order to send and receive SMS or MMS as a group successfully. This means that all these conditions must be met so you can send and receive group messages. These conditions are the following:

message must be sent as a group message from your end

recipients’ devices must be compatible and must have compatible text messaging app

Both carriers (yours and recipients’) must have compatible systems in order to send and receive group message requests both ways.

If you’ve noticed, the last two conditions are beyond your control. If they are not met, you can’t expect to receive messages as a group, even if you did send your own message as a group. For example, even if you send your message as a group but your friends you’re sending the message to are using incompatible devices like iPhones or other non-Samsung devices, or if their carrier don’t support the group message format being used by your own carrier, you won’t be able to receive back responses as a group. You will instead receive their responses as individual messages.

For the first condition, we are assuming that you follow these steps in creating a group message:

From any Home screen, tap Messages.

Tap the Compose icon.

Tap the Contacts icon.

Drop down and tap Groups.

Tap the group you want to send the message to.

Tap Select all or manually select recipients.

Tap Done.

Enter message text in the Group conversation box.

When done, tap the Send icon.

If you can’t live without sending and receiving group messages because our friends are not using compatible devices, try to convince them to use an inter-platform messaging apps instead like Google’s Hangouts or Facebook’s Messenger. These apps can be installed in both Android and iOS devices so you can easily create a group and send and receive messages both ways as a group too.

Problem #3: Galaxy S7 edge screen turns black when browsing

Hello Droid Guy. So, I have followed your steps and even got so frustrated that I factory reset my Samsung S7 Edge. But I did all of this because my phone would turn into a black screen at times while I am on the internet. I could still see Google or Yahoo at the top of the screen, but the content of the page would be black. I can restart my phone and the page comes up and everything seems okay. I downloaded some regular apps again — but my concern is that I have a serious virus or something. This didn’t always happen, it just started this year. I don’t know if this matters but sometimes I click on a site and I get that malware page that comes up. I close out of that tab and go on about my browsing. I have various scanner apps and they say all is okay. I travelled abroad twice last year and used my phone via mobile data and sometimes hotel wifi. Not sure if something was picked up there. I just don’t know. Do I need to reach out to Verizon first? I just want to make sure my phone is okay because I normally keep phones for 4 or 5 years…until they just get too glitchy, etc. I purchased this phone last year in the late summer, early fall. Any guidance is welcomed. Thank You. — Antoinette

Solution: Hi Antoinette. If nothing happened after you did a factory reset, we suggest that you bring the phone to a Verizon store so they can flash or install stock firmware on it. This is the most effective way to remove a malware, if you suspect that the phone’s infected. Keep in mind that there’s always an on-going cat and mouse game between antivirus developers and malware developers. An antivirus may be able to detect a particular malware today but tomorrow, malware developers may know how to avoid current antivirus systems. This cycle repeats day in and day out so there’s no perfect antivirus at all.

Although we are not aware any malware that can cause the problem you’re experiencing, it doesn’t mean such malware doesn’t exist. To be on the safe side, simply ask Verizon to flash the most recent official Samsung firmware.

Hello! I unfortunately let my phone die while I was out of the house and when i returned home to charge it the charging symbol (Battery with the lightning bolt) came up but lasted way longer than normal. I let it charge to 5% and turned it on. Once on it stopped charging completely. I switched cables and plugs and still nothing. Phone died again and when i plugged it back in it started vibrating every 2 seconds or so and sometimes my screen would flicker. Unplugging stops the vibrating and if plugged back in it sometimes vibrates and flickers, sometimes just stays on the charging symbol, and sometimes charges to 3% and then stops. I have attempted a soft and hard reboot, booting to safe mode, and a system restore and nothing has worked. Please help this phone is only a few months old and I’ve babied the hell out of it I don’t know what else to do. Thank you. — David

Solution: Hi David. You’ve tried everything you can at this point so we’re afraid a hardware malfunction is causing the issue. Try to check the charging port with some form of magnification to see inside. If there’s a bent pin or dirt, it may be causing the phone to not charge properly. If there’s nothing out of the ordinary in the charging port, something inside may be problematic. Consider having the phone repaired or replaced.

Problem #5: Cannot install AOL account on Galaxy S7

I got a Samsung Galaxy S7 for Christmas and know very little about it yet because I am a senior and this is my very first smart phone. I’m overwhelmed trying to learn to work on it. Now that I’ve provided a little history I’ll try to explain my dilemma.

There is a list of different email programs in my phone so I clicked on AOL. I’ve had AOL on my laptops and desktops for almost twenty years with very few problems and I’m familiar with it so of course I wanted it on my phone also. After choosing AOL from the list provided it took me to a page that said type in your screen name and password which I did and after doing so I then tried to sign in and it said “either your screen name or password is incorrect. I tried numerous times and the same thing happened.

Tonight I had my S7 lesson with the Skills instructor provided by the store where I bought the phone and asked him for help. He tried several different ways to get AOL to work but none of them did. Each different way he tried he had me enter my screen name and password multiple times with no success so he said he would have to believe the phone and AOL saying either my screen name or password was wrong. Nothing I said could convince him that both were correct. To say I’m frustrated would be putting it mildly. I can’t contact AOL because I have their free email service and they only provide tech support with their paid AOL accounts. If you can’t help me, do you know who I might contact for help? Thank you very much for any assistance. — Sandy

Solution: Hi Sandy. Like what the guy at the store told you, the cause of the problem should come down to either (1) a wrong username and password you’re entering, or (2) your AOL account being incompatible. To check if you have the right username and password, do the following steps:

On your laptop or computer, pull up Microsoft Word or Notepad app.

Type in your username and password.

Pull up a browser and go to your AOL log in page.

Copy and paste your username and password to the login screen.

If you can log in this time, that’s a confirmation that you have indeed a good username and password.

Once you’re certain that you have the right username and password, go back to your phone’s email app and log in again. If the issue continues, it’s possible that this account may not be allowed to be configured in a mobile device.

If you want to access your email on your mobile, we suggest that you try to use a browser like Google Chrome or the native browser app.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 and anytime I try to delete a picture or message it gives me the error “unfortunately messages has stopped working.” I have tried a soft reset and it didn’t solve the problem. I rebooted my phone in Safe Mode and the problem still happens in Safe Mode. I have deleted the cache items and that didn’t solve the problem. The only thing I haven’t done is clear data from the app because there are certain messages in history that I would like to keep. Any further suggestions you have to try to fix this so that I can delete certain things from messages without it kicking me out would be helpful. Thank you in advance for looking into this. — Jennifer

Solution: Hi Jennifer. Try to wipe the system cache, then restart the phone. If you’ll get the same error after refreshing the system cache, consider wiping the app’s data. There’s no other way to fix this problem but this.

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